TVSquad

It's that festive time of year when children put tinsel on the television antennas and hang mistletoe over their favorite DVDs. Where celebrities check into rehab to spend the holidays with all their celebrity friends. And where the rest of America is invited to corporate non-specific, non-religious, non-alcoholic generic winter holiday luncheons where they can mingle with their co-workers and say things like "Remember when this company used to have real Christmas parties?"

But while political correctness may have ruined most holiday functions, nothing can ruin Festivus! That magical season in which TV Squadders hope and pray for televisions dreams come true. And I know just what I want...

... Six welcome returns.

Every fall season I get stoked about all the new shows, with cool new premises ("A guy travels through time trying to make right what once went wrong!"-- Journeyman not Quantum Leap), and all the big changes in store for existing shows. But it's equally exciting to see which beloved actors will be returning to television. Brad Garrett coming back to television in 'Til Death last year? Cool! Patricia Heaton and Kelsey Grammer both coming back to television ... together? That's gotta be awesome, right? Jerry O'Connell on Carpoolers ... well ... ? I like the guy, but I'm not scheduling a 'Welcome Back' shindig for him.

Half the fun of a new television season is the return of great actors and actresses to the small screen. And while I could have easily done 10 or even 20 of these, I've narrowed it down to the six talents who were most welcome back in my house on a weekly basis this past year. I've even been so bold as to rank them. Feel free to agree, disagree and present your own lists in the comments.

One of the things I love about this show is the play on words of its title: The Shield. A shield means protection. In particular, the shield a police officer carries, his badge, is protection. Take the shield away and you're just another citizen. When you're accused of wrongdoing, you've got nothing to hide behind, and there is no backup.

There are those things that make this show hard to watch, such as what happened to ex-Strike Teamer Tavon a while back, to Terry in season one and then, of course, what happened tonight. When you've invested this much into The Shield like I have, scenes like that are hard to take.

Usually I'd go on about all sorts of things that happened in an episode of this show: the interaction between Dutch and Billings, Danny's baby. But not tonight.

Wow. And to think all we have left after tonight is a 90-minute season finale next week. I don't know about you, but I'm really not looking forward to another long hiatus for this show. The thing is, I don't realize how much I miss the show until the next season starts.

Tonight, the look on Vic's face when he saw that Kavanaugh's ex-wife wanted him was perfect. It clearly said, "Oh, this is too good to be true." What I didn't see coming (snicker) was the ex-wife admitting to it in such graphic detail.

And wow...Gina Torres goes full-backside for us. Didn't see that coming, but someone call Mr. Skin, stat!

You know, I was about to chalk this episode to yet another lull-before-sweeps dud, but the last ten minutes paid off big time.

First let me say that The Shield must have gotten some hell for its use of language lately, as the "TVMALV" logo in the upper left of the screen was HUGE! Is it just me or was that new?

So, what have we learned in this episode? Firstly and most frighteningly, we've learned that the producers of this show are absolutely not afraid to show us a fat man's bare ass within the first five minutes of the show.

It's been too long. Way too long. First the return of Battlestar, then this -- that's good TV.

As we saw from the recap from previous seasons, we already know that the Strike Team, and Mackey in particular, is going to see an old crime revisited -- one that a couple of them committed. Namely, the murder of Det. Crowley.

Danny was looking very pregnant, and if you read this recent news, it makes sense why. Did I miss something from last season? I seem to vaguely recall she wanted a baby and asked someone for help, but I could be mixing the story up with another show. The betting pool in The Barn is hilarious, though the look Vic gives Danny sure seems to point toward him as the dad.

The Shield resumes tonight on F/X at 10 PM ET, and we've heard the good news and bad news about this fifth season of the series.

The good: Instead of the usual 13-15 episodes for this show, we'll be treated to a full 21 episodes. There's also a great guest star appearing in at least the first half of the season, Forest Whitaker, playing an internal affairs officer trying to take down the Strike Team. The writers and producers are taking a risky route for this season by revisiting a four-season old crime that's barely been mentioned since season one: the shooting death of Det. Crowley. Remember, I believe only Vic and Shane know what really happened that night.